Meaning & Origins

English form of the Latin name Martinus. This was probably originally derived from Mars (genitive Martis), the name of the Roman god of war (and earlier of fertility). Martin became very popular in the Middle Ages, especially on the Continent, as a result of the fame of St Martin of Tours. He was born the son of a Roman officer in Upper Pannonia (an outpost of the Roman Empire, now part of Hungary), and, although he became a leading figure in the 4th-century Church, he is chiefly remembered now for having divided his cloak in two and given half to a beggar. The name was also borne by five popes, including one who defended Roman Catholic dogma against Eastern Orthodox theology. He died after suffering imprisonment and privations in Naxos and public humiliation in Constantinople, and was promptly acclaimed a martyr by supporters of the Roman Church. Among Protestants, the name is sometimes bestowed in honour of the German theologian Martin Luther (1483–1546); Martin was used as a symbolic name for the Protestant Church in satires by both Dryden and Swift. A further influence may be its use as the given name of the civil-rights leader Martin Luther King (1929–68).